“What I did, I did without choice. In the name of peace and sanity.” — The Doctor
Gone are the days of full waves of Character Options 5-inch Doctor Who figures, sadly, but if all “special edition” 5-inch figures end up being as well-executed as the Other Doctor here, you’ll get no complaints from me.
Character Options has shifted the Doctor Who format to the 3.75-inch platform, and, up until this figure’s announcement, it was believed the 5-inch line was done for good, so this Doctor’s release feels like a special occasion, which is fitting since his appearance on the show was part of a very special occasion — Doctor Who‘s 50th Anniversary.
The presentation here is stunning. He’s packaged in an oblong tube with handsome graphics and an overall collector-friendly packaging scheme. This is leaps and bounds better than the clamshell blister cards we used to get, as nice as they were, and this is the first time in a long time that I’m considering leaving a figure packaged for display purposes. I bought two of them, so one may very well remain sealed. I love it.
The figure is based on John Hurt’s portrayal of the “Other” Doctor (or “War” Doctor), and the likeness is about as spot-on as one could hope for in a 5-inch figure. There is no mistaking that head sculpt for anyone but John Hurt. He’s often referred to as the “War Doctor” because he’s the one credited with ending the great time war with the Daleks. In other words, it’s believed he committed genocide in order to end the war, wiping out both the Daleks and the Time Lords. As a result, he’s an incarnation of the Doctor that the others disavow, basically, as he did not act “in the name of the Doctor.”
The sculpt and paints apps are top-notch. His jacket is made of a softer, rubbery material, and the weathering succeeds in making it look like old, worn leather. All the detailing here is great, though. The entire sculpt is so dead-on. Everything from his scarf to his boots look like they stepped straight out of our TV sets. He really does look like a weary, battle-worn crusader, which alone is a departure from what we’re used to seeing in any incarnation of the Doctor, even Christopher Eccleston’s 9th Doctor.
The weathering paint apps are of a quality we haven’t seen since the glory days of ToyBiz’s Marvel Legends. Even the buttons on the fabric that cover his boots look convincing. This adds a nice bit of diversity to a Doctor collection since he’s often depicted as being so perfectly clean and proper. This Doctor’s look alone makes him a renegade among the flock, which is pretty cool.
In the Doctor Who timeline, this incarnation existed between Paul McGann’s 8th Doctor and Christopher Eccleston’s 9th Doctor. He essentially becomes the bridge between the original series and the new series. Up until last year, the gap that existed between the 1996 movie and 2005’s relaunch had raised so many questions, and this Doctor is the answer to many of those questions. We never saw 8 regenerate into 9, so we were never sure what happened or if that happened at all — now we know.
Thanks to both “The Night of the Doctor” and “The Day of the Doctor,” those questions were laid to rest.
For accessories, he comes with his own unique sonic screwdriver and “the Moment,” the weapon with which he supposedly ended the great war. The sonic screwdriver is a very simple design, which works for him since it’s supposed to hail from a period when it wasn’t used very much, so it lacks the flair of the 10th and 11th Doctors’ screwdrivers, the ones that are whipped out for any purpose under the sun.
The Moment is just a small cube that doesn’t do anything, but it is beautiful. The sculpt is intricate and the paint apps pull off the wooden and metallic look of it nicely. I wish the red button were included so it would be possible to recreate the three Doctors posed with their hands all on it ready to wipe out the Daleks and Time Lords with just a simple gesture, but it’s still cool we got the Moment at all.
The Moment’s “Interface” is a sort of incarnation of Rose, a companion from the 9th and 10th Doctors’ days. It’s a shame Billie Piper shies away from the action figure format because it would be nice to have a show-accurate Interface to display with this Doctor and the Moment.
John Hurt’s interaction with David Tennent and Matt Smith was a delight, so it just feels fun to pose the three of them together. In the classic series, the Doctor had a tendency to be an older man (though there were exceptions to this, of course), so the contrast in age here was a key point in the humorous dynamic of the three.
All three versions of the Doctor here are very different characters, so their juxtaposition alone is enough to recreate some of the best moments from the anniversary special.
In addition to the Sonic Screwdriver and the Moment, the Other Doctor also comes with a swappable head so you can recreate the look of the 8th Doctor from the short anniversary prequel “The Night of the Doctor.” The 8th Doctor’s inclusion in this story was one of 2013’s more pleasant surprises because it’s a commonly held opinion that Paul McGann was criminally short-changed in his portrayal of the Doctor, relegated to just the abysmal 1996 movie. So it goes without saying that it’s awesome to have another version of the 8th Doctor to add to our shelves. This is why many collectors bought two of this set.
The 8th Doctor didn’t wear the same outfit as the Other Doctor in the episode, so this head’s inclusion feels more like a gesture to the fans rather than an opportunity to recreate a screen-accurate 8th Doctor, but you know what? I’ll take it. I think the figure looks pretty awesome with the 8th Doctor’s head in place. It’s a very good likeness to McGann’s look from the special as well.
Now, there was nearly a two-decade gap between the Doctor Who movie and “The Night of the Doctor,” so it stands to reason that Paul McGann would look very different in 2013 than he did in 1996. Fortunately, there was no mistaking him for anyone else when we saw him on screen last year, and the different versions of the 8th Doctor figures do a reasonably good job of maintaining a consistent look.
They’re not identical or anything, and their hairstyles are clearly different, but their facial features are consistent, particularly their mouths and noses. Their eyes are pretty different, but that comes down to the new figure’s having better paint apps.
In profile their likeness’ seem to be more inconsistent. Basically, we know these are supposed to the exact same person with an indeterminate amount of time separating them, but I can’t help but think Character Options could have done a better job in keeping each more true to the other. But since they aren’t, it’s easy to explain the differences away by simply saying “time changed him.”
This set is available now at all the usual spots. Many fans are buying multiple sets, as many as three, in order to display him with both heads and to create a custom 9th Doctor regeneration figure (Eccleston’s head on this body). So the set is selling very well. If you’re interested, I’d suggest picking up one sooner rather than later.